The USPTO has confirmed four claims of Apple's overscroll bounce patent, including claim 19 of the patent, according to a document filed with a Californian court on Thursday. That claim played a crucial part in Apple's US$1.05 billion dollar lawsuit against Samsung,.

"In summary, Claim 19 is Confirmed, as there is no prior art disclosure of a similar device with 'programs including... instructions for translating the electronic document in a second direction until the area beyond the edge of the electronic document is no longer displayed to display a fourth portion of the electronic document, wherein the fourth portion is different from the first portion, in response to detecting that the object is no longer on or near the touch screen display'," said the USPTO.

Apple and Samsung did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online payment issues for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com